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An Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accredited observer for the House of Assembly elections in Bayelsa State , Women Arise Group has said voting did not take place in the seven wards of Nembe Local Government Area of the state. Speaking to journalists in Nembe this afternoon, accompanied by a team of other observers who monitored the elections in the state, Lawson said his team moved around various wards and discovered that there were no elections in seven wards under Constituency 2, 4,5,6,7,11,12, and 13 all in Nembe Bassambiri. Lawson who is a Senior Programmes Officer further disclosed that the polling units in the afore mentioned wards were all deserted and there was no presence of INEC officials nor party agents. “Our findings revealed that the materials meant for the affected units were diverted to an unknown destination by kingpins of a political party and their thugs for illegal thumb printing. “It was also learnt that members of one of the p...

By Lasisi Olagunju The North has made its choice with the election of General Muhammadu Buhari for another four years. The difference between Buhari's votes and those of Atiku Abubakar is 3,928,869. Out of that figure, the South West's contribution is 259,780. What percentage is that?   The three zones in the North contributed more than 80 percent of the balance. I don't want to join those who point at the huge votes from desolate North East towns and villages as proof of rigging. The fact that what the opposition called a heist passed without a whimper from that crimson corridor meant it enjoyed their popular acceptance. The jubilant North and the reluctant South must therefore brace up to live with what Buhari himself has described as the "tough" times of the next four years. I watched video clips of Northern youths celebrating Buhari's victory. They had cause to be happy, he is their daddy. I saw in their hands daggers, I saw sticks an...

By Femi Aribisala In the 2015 presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari of the APC was awarded 15,424,921 votes by Attahiru Jega’s INEC; while Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP was awarded 12,853,162 votes. In that election, Buhari presided like a colossus over the North, which was stoked up to insist on a Northern presidency. Bola Tinubu presided over the South-west, in coalition with Buhari; while President Goodluck Jonathan prevailed in the South-south as its native-son. Suppression of South-Eastern Votes However, the South-eastern states were regarded as orphans, they had no real godfather. As a result, APC succeeded essentially through INEC suppression of the votes of the South-east; and the exaggeration of the votes of the North; especially the North-west. INEC ensured that, far more disproportionately relative to other geopolitical zones, millions of South-East voters disappeared between 2011 and 2015. INEC registered only 7.6 million voters from the entire So...

Members of various non-governmental organisations and civil society groups in Bayelsa State, on Wednesday, staged a peaceful protest over the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections in some parts of the state. Comrade Toitoi Newton of the Grassroots For Development, who led the protest to the Independent National Electoral Commission office in Yenagoa, told journalists that the CSOs demand a cancellation of the purported results from Constituency 4 in Southern Ijaw council and Nembe-Bassambiri in Nembe council where election materials were carted away. According to Comrade Newton, elections did not hold in the seven wards of Nembe-Bassambiri due to the violence orchestrated by political thugs aided by security personnel deployed in the community. He said the people were disenfranchisised as they were chased away from their communities on the day of the election. Comrade Stephen Seleke of the Advocacy for Peace also said anything contrary to t...

Dear citizens of Nigeria, It has come to my knowledge that a number of Nigerians citizens are verified, by local and international observers, to have died since the election began on Saturday, February 23, 2019. Even more citizens have been wounded, maimed or in some way affected by the violence perpetuated by some misguided persons in our midst. My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of the departed and those affected by the violence. I have also initiated steps to assist those in need of medical or other assistance. Even one death is too much for me to accept. I hold the life of every Nigerian and indeed everyone one in Nigeria as sacrosanct. I call on all Nigerians to remember the words of former President Goodluck Jonathan, which I quoted on February 13, 2019, “My ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian’. And it is not just my ambition. I amplify that statement today and declare to Nigeria and the world that NOBODY’s political ambition is worth t...

Bayelsa State Governor, the Honourable Seriake Dickson has accused the military authorities particularly the General Officer Commanding, 6th Division of the Nigerian Army of subverting the will of the people in the electoral process in the state. Governor Dickson who made the accusation during a Media chat in Yenagoa, decried unlawful orders issued by the GOC to officers and men who provided cover for APC leaders and thugs to carry out electoral fraud in some parts of the state.   The Governor condemned the killings and hijacking of electoral materials in areas such as Bassambiri, Oluasiri, Opu Nembe, Agbere, Oweikorogha, Apoi, Azuzuama and Korokorosei. He said that APC leader, Chief Timipre Sylva and an Oil Surveillance Contractor, Kodjo, has taken electoral officer’s hostage at Darius Hotel, Bassambiri, describing the acts as terrorism, He therefore called on the Independent Electoral Commission to reject results from the affected areas to promote the...

Afenifere condemns in the strongest terms the political violence visited on Nigerians of Ndigbo extraction in Lagos during the Saturday Presidential elections.  Dirty political merchants and their band of thugs apart from engineering political disenfranchisement of Ndigbo,went ahead to visit violence on them and burning their votes en masse. The political vandals they used were said to have been calling themselves OPC but our checks with the genuine leaders of the group have shown that the deragend elements had no affiliation with the OPC known by Afenifere. We frown seriously at the failure of the security agencies to give adequate cover to Ndigbo in the affected communities as these thugs went berserk carrying out the instructions of their sinking political godfathers. We want to assure our Igbo Brothers and Sisters that the bond of friendship the Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo have built particularly under the dynamic leadership of Chief John Nwodo remains stron...